Packers sign Van Ness; Musgrave and Reed still unsigned
By Paul Bretl
The Green Bay Packers announced that they signed first-round pick Lukas Van Ness on Tuesday. This leaves second-round picks Luke Musgrave and Jayden Reed as the only unsigned members of the Packers’ 2023 draft class.
Van Ness’ contract is projected to be worth $17.38 million, according to Spotrac, over the four-year deal. Spotrac also projects that $9.6 million of that will come in the form of a guaranteed signing bonus. As a first-round pick, the Packers also have a team option for Van Ness’ fifth season in 2027. It’s projected that Van Ness’ cap hit this year will be $3.16 million.
Over the last two seasons at Iowa, where all of Van Ness’ playing time came, he totaled 68 pressures and 11 sacks. In 2022 specifically, he ranked 10th among edge rushers in PFF’s pass rush productivity metric. Van Ness began his career at Iowa as a defensive tackle and has ample experience lining up inside.
Van Ness’ presence should give the Packers’ edge rusher rotation a needed boost. This was a position group that, without Rashan Gary last season, struggled to generate consistent pressure. Throughout OTAs and minicamp, Van Ness spent most of his time with the second-team defense and has impressed with the speed and power he possesses. As part of his development, however, Van Ness will have to add other moves to his pass-rush repertoire—he simply can’t run through every offensive tackle.
My guess is that, at least early on, we see Van Ness primarily used on passing downs. Not only at edge rusher, but several Packers position coaches have said that when it comes to rookies or young players, they want them to become proficient in a specific role and the responsibilities that come with it before adding more to their plates. GM Brian Gutekuntes also mentioned following the draft that we could see Van Ness used in a similar fashion to how Za’Darius Smith was during his time in Green Bay, where he rushed from the interior in obvious passing situations.
“He’s going to be great for us,” said Kenny Clark prior to OTAs. “He’s going to be versatile, play a lot of different spots. He’s big and strong, so I think he can play inside, playing the 5 (tech), playing the 3 (tech) inside and pass rush. He’s still agile enough to go out and play on the edge. Versatile guy, big and strong, he’s fast on the ball and he has a good long-arm from what I’ve seen training with him.”
The fact that Reed and Musgrave remain unsigned isn’t a surprise. Each year the guaranteed portion of the contracts for second-round picks increases, which means more negotiating between the team and the player’s agent is taking place. In total, 14 second-round picks still remain unsigned, according to SI’s Bill Huber, and it wasn’t until July 20th of last summer that Christian Watson – a second-round pick – signed his rookie deal.
Spotrac is projecting that Musgrave will earn $8.47 million over his four-year contract, which includes $3.2 million guaranteed, and comes with a 2023 cap hit of $1.54 million. Reed’s rookie deal, meanwhile, is estimated at $7.18 million in total, including $2.22 million guaranteed, with a cap hit of $1.3 million this season.